An internet photo of a train full of fireworks rumbling through Langley may be a fake, Township council has been told.
Railway and port representatives have advised the Township/Canadian Pacific railway advisory panel that they looked into the photos, supposedly showing a train with a large and colourful fireworks logo covering the sides of several containers passing through Langley in March.
No fireworks are ever shipped through Langley, they said, and moreover, the containers they handle do not carry that kind of advertising on the sides.
A written record of the CP Community Advisory Panel meeting of Sept. 19 shows Rich Poznikoff of Canadian Pacific, the co-chair of the committee, advised the meeting that neither his railway nor CN Rail “were involved in the possible shipment of fireworks as noted in a recent email from a Langley resident.”
Dennis Bickel, director, trades area, Port Metro Vancouver, said the only advertising allowed on container rail cars is the name of the shipping line.
“The comment was made that the photo may have been altered,” the minutes of the meeting show.
On Monday, Councillor Charlie Fox, the Township co-chair of the panel, said an online search for the fireworks company listed in the photos only found an out-of-service phone number.
The online photo surfaced around the time of the July 6 train derailment and explosion that killed more than 40 people in Lac-Megantic, Que.